Crash on Cmd+S

Dorico
1

Hey there,

I just lost well over an hour of work, because Dorico force-quit when I pressed Cmd+S to save the current project. I immediately checked the project backup folder for the latest auto-save file… which had been created six hours ago. :open_mouth:
It is not the first time that auto-save for some reason stopped working for me, which has never been too problematic, since Dorico almost never crashes on my computer. BUT… I want to strongly encourage the team to find and fix that bug which quietly puts auto-save on hold. It might have something to do with sleep mode on my MacBook Pro, because the last auto-save file was created right before I put it to sleep without closing the project or quitting Dorico.

Best wishes!
Jochen

2

What auto-save feature?
Putting or letting a machine sleep with files open is risky.

3

Yeah, there is no auto-save feature.
The backup folder keeps the previous x versions, and that gets updated when you hit Save (current save is moved or copied to backup folder and new save overwrites the original file).

Or that’s how I think it works anyway.

4

I’m sorry to say that Dorico does not yet have an auto-save feature. This is definitely something that we plan to add in the future.

5

I’ve developed a bit of a nervous tick constantly saving my files lol. You don’t have to learn this lesson the hard way more than once… :grimacing:

6

After a similar loss of work earlier this year, I created a Keyboard Maestro shortcut that, every ten minutes, puts a window on the screen with the message “Hit the Save button, Idiot.” (And of course it has a Save button right there in the window.)

Very, very useful—I haven’t once lost more than ten minutes’ work since.

7

Gold.

8

Dear Lew,

I found it very funny, and would love to have that too — although I own Foreversave 2. Would you be so kind and share the KM code here? The message is really fun ^^

9

Yeah… blame it on me. I always thought, I had seen an auto-save option deep down inside Dorico’s preferences that controls how often it creates backups. Must have been a dream. Sorry for having taken your time!

10

I don’t think anyone is blaming it on you! I for one am very sorry that you have lost work. We will certainly add an auto-save feature to Dorico soon, but I’m afraid it hasn’t yet got to the top of the priority list.

11

Hi, Marc,

Here’s the KM code for the “Time to Save” idiot warning.

Or were you asking to see my whole KM set? I don’t mind sharing that either, though a lot of folks would call it overkill — there are about 110 of them. I do enough writing that it was worth the time investment to create them; I figure I’ve long since recovered the time.

I have keystrokes, for example, that do every dynamic combination I could think of, from single dynamics to any combination of dynamics linked by crescendos or decrescendos, or even just a cresc. or decresc. to or from any given dynamic. 57 shortcuts just for the dynamics.

There are nine shortcuts for some common time signatures — one keystroke for each of the common x/4 and x/8 meters.

And then there are just a whole lot of miscellaneous ones, like a keystroke for an arpeggio marking or a glissando. (The first time I wrote a major harp part, those became immediately important!)

And of course the humorous part of it is that between all my KM shortcuts and the keystroke shortcuts I’ve added through Dorico preferences, I can’t usually remember them all. So three of my KM keystroke shortcuts are to show Reminder Windows listing (more or less by subject group) all kinds of info, including keystrokes, how-to reminders, even some unusual instrumental transpositions (I do a lot of orchestral transcribing); in short, anything that I tend to forget. My rule of thumb is, if I’ve had to look it up twice, it goes into one of the reminder files.

Having said all that, I live in deadly fear that my “system,” such as it is, will become so overloaded that I’ll have to create Reminder Windows telling me in which Reminder Window the particular thing I’m looking for resides! :slight_smile:

Anyway, I’ve attached the “Save now, Idiot!” warning, but if you’d like my whole KM file, I’m happy to share; just let me know.

That applies to anyone out there with Keyboard Maestro, btw; I’m happy to share my shortcut file.
Save Warning.kmmacros.zip (3.74 KB)

12

Thanks Lew!
Well, I don’t really “need” to know what your KM shortcuts are, but it could still be very interesting to share that resource… Sometimes we do not think about something and when it’s there, we wonder why we have not thought about it earlier!

13

I suppose it depends how fast you type, but I’m not sure I need 57 short cuts for dynamics when pressing keys like “Df>pp” works already.

I like the idea of short cuts to remind you what the short cuts are, though :wink:

14

I get it, Rob — as I said, it’s overkill for a lot of people. But when you do a long piece of large ensemble music, it’s really a convenience to just type Ctrl-Opt-4 immediately followed by a 1, all on the numeric keypad. Maybe half a second. The Ctrl-Opt tells it it will be a decrescendo, the 4 begins it at mf, and the 5 ends it with the pp.

I never have to reach for the center of the keyboard, and I never have to type Shft-p for the popover, mf>pp, the return key, or anything else — just those two keystrokes. Keyboard Master takes care of the rest.

Because I use them so often, I don’t even have to think about which keystrokes to use—it has become second nature.

Marc, here’s the whole package for your perusing amusement. :slight_smile:
Dorico Macros.kmlibrary.zip (265 KB)

15

I hope the auto-save could be implemented in the next version.
Today afternoon, Dorico was suddenly frozen when inserting a note.
My work for about 1 hour was gone…

16

I know that you’re about to be pleasantly surprised, prko.

17

Oh, don’t keep the poor guy in suspense.

Preview of Some Features in Dorico 2.2.10 | Discover Dorico - YouTube At 3:20. Auto save is coming in a matter of days!

18

:stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue: Wow, great!